Contact
Max-Planck-Institut für ethnologische Forschung
Dr. Markus Virgil Höhne
phone: ++49 (0) 345 / 29 27 142
phone: 0176-67 38 63 48
mhoehne@eth.mpg.de
Advokatenweg 36
06114 Halle (Saale)
Dr. Markus Virgil Höhne
Scholarship holder 10/2006 - 09/2007
Dissertation defense: July,15th 2011
Predicate: summa cum laude
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Richard Rottenburg
Overview
Political Orientations and Repertoires of Identification: State and Identity Formation in Northern Somalia
In the context of the Somali state collapse two political entities, Somaliland and Puntland, developed as de facto states in northern Somalia. Their populations and governments succeeded in establishing a minimum of effective state structures over the last 15 years, in the absence of international recognition. While Somaliland unilaterally seceded from Somalia and claims independent statehood, Puntland has the program to re-build a united Somalia. These conflicting political programs influence processes of identity formation on the local and regional level.
The focus of my project is on the dynamics of identification in situations of rapid change, such as escalating conflict. I argue that as a result of the Somali civil war and the following developments in the study area new identities formed on the ground. These identities are not ethnic identities in the sense that anyone in or outside northern Somalia would seriously argue that the carriers of these identities would belong to different ethnic groups. They rather can be understood as political identities which are based on features resembling ethnic identities such as descent, history, connection to certain territories (e.g. clan-homelands) and collective memory. They combine existing identity markers in a particular way and are meaningful in the current political context of the area.
In peaceful everyday life, cross-cutting ties through intermarriage, common life-experiences, similar interpretations of history and culture etc. allow for flexible identification on various levels. Thereby, relations bridging political differences can be forged. However, when conflict between Somaliland and Puntland escalates flexibility diminishes. In extreme situations, when for example in December 2003 the Puntland troops entered territory which was claimed to be part of Somaliland, political identities form relatively clear blocks dividing the social, political and territorial landscape of northern Somalia.
Curriculum Vitae
Dr. Markus Virgil Höhne born 1975 in Traunstein, Germany, married, three children
Education
| 07/2011 | PhD defended; title of dissertation: Political Orientations and Repertoires of Identification: State and Identity Formation in Northern Somalia, Martin-Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. |
| 10/2006-09/2007 | Writing-up stipend at the Graduate school Asia and Africa in World Reference Systems, Martin Luther University (MLU) Halle-Wittenberg |
| 04/2003-05/2006 | Ph.D. candidate at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle/Saale, Germany. |
| 02/2002 | M.A. in Social Anthropology, Faculty of Antiquity and Cultural Studies, Ludwigs-Maximilians University (LMU) Munich. Thesis title: Strategien der friedlichen Konfliktaustragung in Somalia auf lokaler und internationaler Ebene [Strategies of peaceful conflict settlement in Somalia at the local and the international level]. |
| Autumn1995-spring 2002 | Studies in Social Anthropology, History, Turkology and International Law at the LMU Munich. |
Professional Experience
| 10/2011-06/2013 | Employed as post-doc at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle/Saale, Germany as Co-Project-Leader, Lead Researcher and Project-Coordinator in the project on “Transitional justice in protracted conflict: local and diaspora conceptions of retributive and restorative justice between shari’a, customary and human rights law in Somalia and Ethiopia’s Somali Region” financed by the German Foundation for Peace-research. |
| 05/2011-09/2011 | Independent Consultant |
| 11/2008-01/2011 | Employed at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle/Saale, Germany as Researcher and Work-package Coordinator in an EU-funded research project on “Diasporas for Peace: Patterns, Trends and Potential of Long-distance Diaspora Involvement in Conflict Settings. Case studies from the Horn of Africa”; Project ended February 2011. |
| Since 2005 | Working as independent Somalia expert; writing reports in asylum cases and conducting consultancies (Consultancies among others for the Swiss Refugee Council, the World Bank and the Rift Valley Institute). |
| Since winter term 2005 | Teaching undergraduate courses in Social Anthropology at the MLU in Halle/Saale on a voluntary basis (see below for a list of the courses taught). |
| Summer term 2011 | Anthropology of transitional justice: Justice and social reconstruction in post-conflict societies. |
| Summer Term 2010 | Diaspora and transnationalism: Introduction to two newer research fields in anthropology. |
| Summer Term 2007 | State-formation and statehood in Europe and Africa in comparison (together with Jutta Bakonyi) |
| Winter term 2006/07 | Anthropology of war and peace. |
| Winter term 2005/06 | Introduction to Somali culture, society and politics. |
Fieldwork
| 07/2002-02/2011 | In total two years of field research in northern Somalia (Somaliland and Puntland). |
| 05/2005 | Short-term field research in Augsburg (Germany) on African Culture in the Augsburg Zoo (together with Data Dea and Nina Glick-Schiller). |
| Spring 2001 | Internship at the Society for Threatened People (Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker), Göttingen. |
| Summer 2000 | Internship at the Institute of African Affairs (Institut für Afrikakunde), Hamburg. |
| 1999/2000 | Member of the National Model United Nations delegation of the LMU Munich to New York. |
| 1999/2000 | Student Assistant at the Institute for Social Anthropology and African Studies at the LMU Munich. |
German (mother tongue), English (excellent), Somali (fluent), French (beginner).
Publications
Books and Edited Volumes
| In preparation | Special Issue on The Somali (civil) war: accounting for 20 years of ‘statelessness’ (Journal of Eastern African Studies, to be published in February 2012). |
| 2010 | With Dereje Feyissa (eds.), Borders and borderlands as Resources in the Horn of Africa. London: James Currey. |
| 2010 | With Virginia Luling (eds.), Milk and peace, drought and war: Somali culture, society and politics (Essays in honour of I.M. Lewis). London: Hurst. |
| 2002 | Somalia zwischen Krieg und Frieden. Strategien der friedlichen Konfliktaustragung auf internationaler und lokaler Ebene. Arbeiten aus dem Institut für Afrika-Kunde Bd. 113. Hamburg: Institut für Afrika-Kunde. |
Peer-reviewed Journal Articles
| 2011 | (with Dereje Feyissa and Mahdi Abdile), Comparing Somali and Ethiopian diasporic engagement for peace in the Horn of Africa. African Conflict & Peacebuilding Review 1(1): 71-99. |
| 2010 | L’État de facto du Somaliland. Politique Africaine no. 120: 175-199. |
| 2010 | Diasporisches Handeln in Bürgerkrieg und Wiederaufbau: Beispiele aus Somalia und Somaliland. Friedens-Warte 85(1-2): 83-103. |
| 2009 | Mimesis and mimicry in dynamics of state and identity formation in northern Somalia. Africa 79(2): 252-281. |
| 2009 | Mimesis and mimicry in dynamics of state and identity formation in northern Somalia. Africa 79(2): 252-281. |
| 2008 | Newspapers in Hargeysa: Freedom of speech in post-conflict Somaliland. Africa Spectrum 43(1): 91-114. |
| 2006 | Political identity, emerging state structures and conflict in Northern Somalia. Journal of Modern African Studies 44(3): 397-414. |
Book Chapters and Articles in non-peer reviewed Journals
| Forthcoming 2011 | Education and peacebuilding in post-conflict Somaliland: the role of the diaspora. In Joschka Philipps, Kerstin Priwitzer and Heribert Weiland (eds) Education in Fragile Contexts. Freiburg i. Br.: Arnold-Bergstraesser-Institut 2010 (Freiburger Beiträge zu Entwicklung und Politik). |
| Forthcoming 2011 | Die somalische Diaspora: Rollen und Chancen in (Bürger-)Krieg und Wiederaufbau. In Walter Feichtinger und Gerald Hainzl (eds), Somalia: Optionen-Chancen–Stolpersteine. Frankfurt/M, Weimar: Böhlau. |
| Forthcoming 2011 | Al Shabaab in Somalia: Von einer Terrorzelle zu einem regierungsähnlichen Akteur. In Walter Feichtinger und Gerald Hainzl (eds), Somalia: Optionen-Chancen–Stolpersteine. Frankfurt/M, Weimar: Böhlau. |
| 2011 | Somalia zwischen Bürgerkrieg und Hungerkatastrophe. Blätter für deutsche und internationale Politik 9/2011, pp. 21-24. |
| 2011 | Not born as a de facto state: Somaliland’s complicated state formation. In Roba Sharamo and Berouk Mesfin (eds.), Regional Security in the Post-Cold War Horn of Africa. Pretoria: ISS, pp. 309-346. |
| 2010 | (with Dereje Feyissa), State Borders and Borderlands as Resources: An Analytical Framework. In Dereje Feyissa and Markus V. Hoehne (eds.), Borders and borderlands as Resources in the Horn of Africa. London: James Currey, pp. 1-25. |
| 2010 | People and Politics along and across the Somaliland-Puntland Border. In Dereje Feyissa and Markus V. Hoehne (eds.), Borders and borderlands as Resources in the Horn of Africa. London: James Currey, pp. 97-121. |
| 2010 | Somaliland. Un estado de facto en el Cuerno de África. In Jordi Tomas (ed.), Secesionismo en Ãfrica, Edicions Bellaterra: Barcelona, pp. 365-404. |
| 2010 | (with Virginia Luling), Introduction: Lewis and the remaining challenges in Somali Studies. In Markus V. Hoehne and Virginia Luling (eds.), Milk and peace, drought and war: Somali culture, society and politics (Essays in honour of I.M. Lewis). London: Hurst, pp 1-15. |
| 2010 | (with Muuse Cali Faruur and Axmed Cabdullahi Du’aale), Somali (nick)names and their meanings. In Markus V. Hoehne and Virginia Luling (eds.), Milk and peace, drought and war: Somali culture, society and politics (Essays in honour of I.M. Lewis). London: Hurst, pp. 345-363. |
| 2010 | Political representation in Somalia: citizenship, clanism and territoriality. In Mark Bradbury and Sally Healy (eds.), Accord 21: Whose peace is it anyway? connecting Somali and international peacemaking, pp. 34-37. http://www.c-r.org/our-work/accord/somalia/citizenship-clanism-territoriality.php |
| 2007 | (with Tobias Hagmann), Failed State or Failed Debate? Multiple Somali political orders within and beyond the nation-state. Politorbis 1: 20-26. |
| 2007 | From pastoral to state politics: Traditional authorities in Northern Somalia. In Lars Buur and Helene M. Kyed (eds.), State Recognition and Democratisation in Sub-Saharan Africa: A New Dawn for Traditional Authorities? New York: Palgrave, pp. 155-182. |
| 2007 | Die vorkoloniale Geschichte am Horn von Afrika. In Dieter H. Kollmer and Andreas Mükusch (eds.), Horn von Afrika, Reihe: Wegweiser zur Geschichte. Paderborn: Schöningh, pp. 15-27. |
| 2007 | Aktuelle Lagebeschreibung [Somalia] im März 2007. In Dieter H. Kollmer and Andreas Mükusch (eds.), Horn von Afrika, Reihe: Wegweiser zur Geschichte. Paderborn: Schöningh, pp. 98-101. |
| 2007 | Islam am Horn von Afrika. In Dieter H. Kollmer and Andreas Mükusch (eds.), Horn von Afrika, Reihe: Wegweiser zur Geschichte. Paderborn: Schöningh, pp. 204-205. |
| 2007 | Political identity and the state: reflections on emerging state structures and conflict in northern Somalia. In Osman Farah, Mammo Muchie and Joakim Gundel (eds.), Somalia: Diaspora and State Reconstruction in the Horn of Africa. London: Adonis & Abbey, pp. 233-248. |
| 2007 | Staatszerfall, Konfliktregelung und Staatsaufbau. Zur Diversifizierung der politischen und sozialen Realitäten in Somalia. In Melha R. Biel and Olaf Leiße (eds.), Politik in Ostafrika zwischen Staatszerfall und Konsolidierung. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, pp. 75-101. |
| 2005 | Somalia – Ein Neubeginn? Entwicklungen und Perspektiven unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Verhältnisse in Nord-Somalia. In Walter Feichtinger and Gerald Hainzl (eds.), Krisenherd Nordostafrika. Internationale oder afrikanische Verantwortung? Baden-Baden: Nomos, pp. 41-63. |
| 2003 | Report on the recent situation in Somaliland. Identity, conflict and reconstruction in a wartorn society. Ethnologik. Zeitschrift der Studierenden des Instituts für Ethnologie und Afrikanistik in München, 1, 27-40. |
Working Papers
| Forthcoming 2011 | No easy way out: Traditional Authorities in Somaliland and the Limits of Hybrid Political Orders. DIIS Worling Paper |
| 2010 | (With Dereje Feyissa, Mahdi Abdile, Clara Schmitz-Pranghe) Differentiating the Diaspora: Reflections on diasporic engagement ‘for peace’ in the Horn of Africa. Working Paper 124. Halle/Saale: Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology. http://www.eth.mpg.de/cms/en/publications/working_papers/pdf/mpi-eth-working-paper-0124.pdf |
| 2010 | Diasporic engagement in the educational sector in post-conflict Somaliland: A contribution to peacebuilding? Diaspeace Working Paper No. 5. http://www.diaspeace.org/D12_Hoehne_MPI.pdf |
| 2009 | (With Brian Donahoe, John Eidson, Dereje Feyissa, Veronika Fuest, Boris Nieswand, Günther Schlee and Olaf Zenker), The formation and mobilization of collective identities in situations of conflict and integration. Working Paper Nr.116. Halle/Saale: Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology. http://www.eth.mpg.de/pubs/wps/pdf/mpi-eth-working-paper-0116.pdf |
| 2008 | (With Dereje Feyissa), Resourcing State Borders and Borderlands in the Horn of Africa. Working Paper Nr.107. Halle/Saale: Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology. http://www.eth.mpg.de/pubs/wps/pdf/mpi-eth-working-paper-0107.pdf |
| 2006 | Traditional Authorities in Northern Somalia: Transformation of powers and positions. Working Paper Nr. 82. Halle/Saale: Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology. http://www.eth.mpg.de/pubs/wps/pdf/mpi-eth-working-paper-0082.pdf |
Online Publications
| 2009 | Counter-terrorism in Somalia, or: how external interferences helped to produce militant Islamism. Published online on 17 December 2009 (http://hornofafrica.ssrc.org/somalia/ ). |
| 2007 | Puntland and Somaliland clashing in northern Somalia: Who cuts the Gordian knot? published online on 07 November 2007 (http://hornofafrica.ssrc.org/Hoehne/ ). |
| 2006 | Statehood as legal/political concept and empirical reality in the context of state-collapse and state-reconstruction: the case of Somaliland. Online paper for GSAA. |
| 2000 | Das Verhältnis zwischen der VR China und der Republik China auf Taiwan gestern und heute (http://www.chinafokus.de/nmun/4.php ). |
Encyclopaedia Articles
| 2010 | Somali ethnography. In Siegbert Uhlig (ed.): Encyclopaedia Aethiopica Vol. 4 O-X, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, pp. 702-705. |
| 2010 | (with Nicole Hirt), Somalia. In Siegbert Uhlig (ed.): Encyclopaedia Aethiopica Vol. 4 O-X, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, pp.705-707. |
| 2010 | Somalia, political history. In Siegbert Uhlig (ed.): Encyclopaedia Aethiopica Vol. 4 O-X, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, pp.707-710. |
| 2007 | Mağeerteen. In Siegbert Uhlig (ed.), Encyclopaedia Aethiopica, 3. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 631-633. |
Book Reviews
| Forthcoming | Review: Eva-Maria Bruchhaus and Monika M. Sommer (eds.) 2008: Hot Spot Horn of Africa Revisited: Approaches to make sense of conflict. Lit Verlag: Münster. Africa 81. |
| 2011 | Review: Alice Bellagamba and Georg Klute (eds.) 2008: Beside the State: Emergent powers in contemporary Africa, Köln: Rüdiger Köppe. Africa 81(3): 494-495. |
| 2010 | Ioan Lewis 2008: Understanding Somalia and Somaliland. Journal of Modern African Studies 48(2): 343-346. |
| 2009 | Shaul Shay 2008: Somalia between Jihad and Restoration. Civil Wars 11(3): 386-388. |
| 2008 | Mark Bradbury 2008: Becoming Somaliland. Journal of Modern African Studies 46 (4): 690-692. |
| 2006 | Magnus Treiber 2005: Der Traum vom guten Leben. Die eritreische warsay-Generation im Asmara der zweiten Nachkriegszeit. Zeitschrift für Ethnologie 131 (2): 373-376. |
| 2004 | Bettina Beer (Hrsg.) 2003: Methoden und Techniken der Feldforschung. Zeitschrift für Ethnologie 129 (2): 311-313. |
Miscellaneous
| 2010 | Somalia – wo Menschenleben nicht viel zählen und externe Interventionen die Lage nur verschlimmern, Pogrom 2/2010, 15-17. |
| 2009 | The current election crisis in Somaliland: outcome of a failed ‘experiment’?. Horn of Africa Bulletin, 21 (10), 1-4. http://www.life-peace.org/sajt/filer/pdf/Horn_Of_Africa_Bulletin/HAB%20October%202009.pdf |
| 2009 | Somalia 2009: Eskalierender Bürgerkrieg, verpasste Chancen und internationale Ratlosigkeit. Internationales Magazin für Sicherheit (IMS) 4. |
| 2009 | Unbemerkte Erfolge: Somalilands Entwicklung abseits der Weltbühne. Afrikapost,June, pp. 28-29. |
| 2009 | Struggle for education and development in Somaliland’s eastern periphery. Horn of Africa Bulletin, 21 (5), 4-7. http://www.life-peace.org/sajt/filer/pdf/Horn_Of_Africa_Bulletin/HAB05May09.pdf |
| 2008 | The bombings in Somaliland and Puntland – an attempt to drag the north into the politics of violence of southern Somalia. Horn of Africa Bulletin, 20 (10), 4-6. http://www.life-peace.org/sajt/filer/pdf/Horn_of_Africa_Bulletin/HAB0811.pdf |
| 2008 | Somaliland: between press freedom and limitation. Horn of Africa Bulletin, 20 (6), 1-4. |
| 2008 | Somaliland vs. Puntland over the future of Somalia. Horn of Africa Bulletin, 20 (2), 1-3. |
Consultancy Reports/Reports for Institutions
| 2011 | Indirect Threats to Peace in Somaliland: The fighting in the Galgala mountains between Somaliland and Puntland. Report for the Rift Valley Institute. |
| 2011 | Threats to Peace in Somaliland: the contested borderlands and the rise of the SSC. Report for the Rift Valley Institute. |
| 2010 | (With Clara Schmitz-Pranghe and Andrea Warnecke), DIASPEACE Synthesis Report WP2&WP3. Report to the EU within the DIASPEACE Project. |
| 2008 | Somalia Update (2006-2008), Report for the Swiss Refugee Council/Schweizer Flüchtlingshilfe, Bern, Switzerland. |
| 2008 | Traditional Authorities and Local Government in Southern Sudan. Report for the World Bank, Washington, USA. |
| 2005 | (With Nina Glick-Schiller and Data Dea), African Culture and the Zoo in the 21st century: The ‘African Village’ in the Augsburg Zoo and its wider implications, Report to the MPI for Social Anthropology, Halle/Saale, Germany. |
| 2004 | The capacity of local community leaders to involve in security sector policy making. Report for EC/GTZ on the recent situation in Lasanod. |
| 2004 | Competence of local communities in peace building. Report for EC/GTZ on the recent situation in Lasanod. |
Since 2005: Interviews for German and foreign newspapers (e.g., Westfälische Rundschau, Dagbladet [Denmark]), radio stations (e.g., Deutschlandradio Kultur, Deutsche Welle, SWR 2, BBC Somali Service [UK]) and TV-stations (e.g., Deutsche Welle TV, STV [Sweden], Horn Cable TV [Somalia]) on topics such as piracy, conflict, political Islam, education and famine in Somalia, Somaliland and Puntland.
Study Day Contributions
- Statehood as legal/political concept and empirical reality in the context of state-collapse and state-reconstruction: the case of Somaliland
Research Interests
Identity, conflict, conflict settlement, political anthropology, anthropology of the state
Research Area
Somaliland, Puntland, Somalia
Award
| 1999 | DAAD scholarship for Turkish language training in Ankara, Turkey. |
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Völkerkunde (DGV), Verein der Afrikanisten in Deutschland (VAD), European Anthropological Studies Association (EASA), African Borderlands Research Network (ABORNE), Rift Valley Institute (RVI)